Chipstar Reading: I tried out town's new Broad Street chip shop

Fish and chips, burger and chips, dirty fries… you can do wonderful things with chips.

And Reading isn’t short of places to get them.

Mr Chips on the Oxford Road is open again after a refurbishment, Five Guys in the Oracle is famous for its peanut oil fries and Blue Collar’s Market Place street food hub always has a good fries option in there somewhere.

But there’s a new kid on the block.

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Chipstar has been open on Broad Street for two weeks, located where Vape Superstore used to be based.

Chipstar is open on Broad Street in Reading town centre

The chippie hails from the Netherlands with a tagline of ‘fresh fries, Dutch tradition’.

It has stores across the world, including in Israel, Spain, Italy.

The Reading store is widely believed to be the first of its kind in the UK.

So naturally, I had to go along to try it out.

It’s a small space inside Chipstar (it is a takeaway with nowhere to sit inside) with a front counter to the left with a menu on the wall.

While the menu is small, too, there’s actually more on there than you might expect from a place that’s business is selling chips.

You can get a cone of chips in small, medium or large sizes for £3, £4.50 or £7 respectively.

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You can get a (chicken or veggie) hot dog on its own (£3.50) or with fries (£5).

Or you can get a cup of fries with cut-up pieces of Wurstel (as the hot dogs are called) for £5).

Where Chipstar comes into its own is with its range of sauces.

Chipstar is open on Broad Street in Reading town centre

You’ve got your traditional sauces such as mayo, ketchup, curry sauce and mustard, as well as more out-there choices like pita, ‘extra spicy’ Samourai and whisky-flavoured ‘cocktail’ sauce.

I opted for a cup of chips with chicken Wurtzel covered in curry sauce.

Ordering my food, the staff were very helpful and friendly and up for a chat.

They seemed genuinely eager to be serving me, telling me they had seen a ‘constant but not busy’ flow of people into their fortnight-old store.

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I was handed my cup of chips and Wurstel in no time at all and thankfully the cup was bigger than it looks in the picture advertised.

You are given a long, pointed stick with which to stab at your chips.

Although it looks fiddly and a fork would be more practical, the long-stick did the job (except when I needed to polish off the crispy odds-and-ends at the end of my meal!).

The pointed stick you are given to eat your chips with

I tucked into my lunch and was greeted by the recognisable salty, deep-fried goodness of the humble chip we all know and love.

The fries were not skinny but not chunky, either, which was to my liking.

They were crunchy on the outside and soft and fluffy in the middle, as you would want from a good quality chip.

They were well-seasoned with just the right amount of salt and the curry sauce was very sweet with a small kick of spice.

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The chips were good -- nothing out-of-this-world, but still good.

However, the real treat came from the chicken Wurstel.

Chipstar is open on Broad Street in Reading town centre

Although quite heavy, the sausage was moist and tasty and the best part of the order.

The only downside was that there was not much of the Wurstel.

In any sense, it was better sausage than the sub-par currywurst sold at one of the Christmas market stalls on Broad Street over the festive period.

Overall, I really enjoyed my first experience of Chipstar.

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For £5, it wasn’t bad value for lunch despite me wanting more after I had polished off my cup.

I think next time I visit (and I definitely will visit again) I’ll get the hot dog and fries so I can try out more of that tasty chicken Wurstel.

Have you tried Chipstar yet? Let us know in the comments below!